PREFACE HE personality of many men is best found in private correspondence. The real nature of an individual is disclosed not by his vocation, which may be the result of accident or environment, but by the use he makes of his leisure hours. These are his own, and what he does within this limitation may fairly be taken as an expression of his personal choice. To keep a diary is an evidence of introspection. Senator Burrows was not a voluminous correspondent, preferring the more direct appeal of personal intercourse. During his long life of National service he realized that each speech he made, each measure upon which he voted, was a record of character which no man could escape; and he preferred to be judged by his public utterances and acts. He had no avocation, for his life was entirely absorbed by the direct and indirect duties incidental to the important work which his Party intrusted to him. He was not introspective, and his diary is written upon the pages of the Congressional Record and in the stenographers' reports of his public speeches. This habit of life, while clearly consistent with the man, has both lightened and complicated the labors of his biographer. There have been fewer inconsistencies to reconcile, there has been less secret history to disclose. Senator Burrows lived in the open, fought his battles in public, and left to his biographer the pleasure of recording and analyzing rather than the task of explaining. This record covers so long a period and so many subjects vital to the evolutionary progress of the country, that to condense it even within the space of two volumes such as these has necessitated the utmost care in order to preserve the proportions without unduly affecting the true perspective. From those who knew Senator Burrows in action and who worked with him, have come many sidelights which have been of infinite value to the biographer in drawing his pen picture of the man, and he acknowledges gratefully his obligations to ex-VicePresident Charles W. Fairbanks, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, ex-Speaker Joseph G. Cannon, and exGovernor John T. Rich of Michigan; also to Dr. Davis R. Dewey, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for his critical reading in manuscript of the chapters on Protection and Currency. Henry M. Rose, Esquire, now assistant secretary of the United States Senate, and for many years Senator Burrows' confidential secretary, has given generously of his time and knowledge. Edward C. Goodwin, Esquire, librarian of the United States Senate, and Mrs. Jennie P. Andrews, of the War Department, have lessened the research labors. The writing of these volumes has not been a perfunctory literary task. The biographer has completed his work with an increased knowledge of the influences surrounding those who conscientiously labor for the advancement of their country's interests, and with a profound admiration for those few who have proved themselves strong enough to hold closely to their plotted course. He has learned also how great a debt the present owes to those of the past generation who built so firmly that basis upon which we must rest today if we are to endure as a Nation and stand as a World power. WILLIAM DANA ORCUTT BOSTON, October, 1917 |